spoilt for choice

dublin’s gay scene isn’t too bad at all, but who says it couldn’t be better. there are loads of new nights coming up and here are a few i definitely want to check out.

one of them, a new saturday night club, mother, launches tonight from 10:30pm @ copper alley on exchange street across from the back lounge. sounds like the human league to electropop, numan to murphy, lennox to la roux, depeche mode to mgmt. entrance €10 and supports the gcn forever campaign, it’s strictly over 21′s and has some great drinks promotions.

blah blah blah is the new thursday night club @ the sycamore club on sycamore street in temple bar and launches the 10th june. live art in the drawing room, short film screening in the film room and resident mimi rouge in the open roof top terrace bar, were you can drink, dance, smoke and relax (i love that place). free entry before midnight and only €5 after. definitely heading to this and not just to see my ugly mug on the big screen.

after you recover from the weekend, tuesday the 15th june sees the launch of a new night the hutch hosted by bunny in pantibar. sounds like fun “A brand spanking new cabaret night. Dark and sparkly! I’m on the lookout for performers of all kinds. Drag queens, kings, faux queens (if you know what it means you are one), burlesquers, singers, actrines, poets, musicians, stand-ups, circus, theatre gays and general all-out attention seeking whores! Get in touch x”

friday 18th june, sees the launch of a new occasional club night rip (rock indie pop) @ the button factory in temple bar. this looks like it might help all those that have been pining away for the return of q+a (i miss you). with drink promotions, performance art, amazing give-aways and dj regina george & her hot dancing squad, this could well be the cure.

all set for a hectic week or two? yep. now just to win this poker tournament tonight and go to all of them.

behind under the influence

when it came to thinking what to do for the exhibition, other than family and friends, the main person that kept coming to mind was panti and why? because she “never fails to inspire me with her presence, eloquence and wit. i’m in constant awe.”

i also wanted to get in other influences or artists i admire. i picked out a photograph of panti by fiona morgan with mouth open referencing edvard munch (also as a printing artist) and francis bacon. i wanted to do a relief print with lino using the reduction technique, said to have been promoted by pablo picasso as a serious medium for artist.

panti by fiona morgan

i reflected the photo so that when i drew onto the lino it would print similarly to the photo. i selected areas of light to dark and marked them out.

i cut away the lightest areas from the lino, leaving other areas untouched. i mixed ink to create the tone i wanted, registered my paper and printed the second colour (the first colour being the paper)

while prints were left to dry, i washed and dried lino. then prepared for the next print by cutting away the next lightest tone. when the first prints were dry, i mixed ink for my third colour and made the second print.

finally i cut away the rest of the lino that wasn’t my darkest colour and made final print. estimated time for the print was 12hrs excluding drying time.

bliss

under the influence

the launch of under the influence on friday night was a great success and a lot of fun too. the exhibition continues until the 15th march so there’s plenty of time to have a look, it’s well worth it. there’s still some work available to purchase. here’s a report on the night by gcn.

my sister came along too, had a great time. she loved front lounge and dragon but pantibar most of all.

guess who

bit of a teaser for my contribution to under the influence. it might not be hard to guess at this stage even though there’s still one more colour to go down, but when i printed the first colour i wasn’t so sure. it’s almost 3:30am just home from work and about to do the final cut on the block and print last colour. should be dry and ready to go to dublin tomorrow. wrecked!

Bliss

under the influence

usually me and ‘under the influence’ conjures up images of me being ossified drunk, general stubbornness or being found on the landing of a stairs wearing nothing but a jock strap. thankfully, some of those things are behind me.

in this instance it’s something completely different. as we all know, the dreaded recession has hit almost everything in this country, it really doesn’t discriminate. gcn (gay community news) unfortunately is no exception. as part of the gcn forever campaign, an exhibition curated by will st leger will open on the 5th march to raise much-needed funds. proceeds from sales go towards gcn. you can rsvp here.

i’m really honoured and excited to be part of this, especially as it’s for such a worthy cause. long live gcn. now, to get cracking.

under the influence